DIRTRACKR Daily Podcast - Episode Transcript
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Extra help for Donny Schatz, Tony Stewart Racing? Plus, it's Knoxville Nationals time! | Daily 8-9-2025
It's Knoxville Nationals Saturday, and we'll talk who locked in from Friday, preview tonight's racing, and a possible reason why Donny Schatz looked pretty good last night. We'll also hit on the North South 100 and Friday race results. Let's go!
It's Saturday, August 9th, I'm Justin Fiedler. This is DIRTRACKR Daily presented by Kubota Genuine Parts.
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At Knoxville, it all comes down to today for the Nationals. We've got 20 of 24 feature starters set, and 75 cars will battle tonight to try and grab one of those final few main event spots. We locked in four last night during Hard Knox Friday, and as we've said all week, no lack of storylines. David Gravel took the lead from Kerry Madsen at half way last night, and drove on to the Hard Knox win, locking himself into the big show. It was the bounceback he needed after a tough prelim night that left him outside looking in. I think we can officially say Gravel has become a sprint car villain, as he seemed to revel in victory lane last night as the boos rained down from the Knoxville crowd. Even Wade Aunger said to Gravel that Aaron Reutzel wants his job back. Obviously referring to Reutzel being a villain as well. Gravel fast all night, going P2 in his time trial group, charging from fourth to the heat win, and going four to one in the feature. We know he's fast, but can he get to the front from 21st tonight? It will certainly be a tall task. Behind Gravel, Buddy Kofoid hustled his ass off all night and earned a starting spot as well. Not super fast in qualifying, and missed the feature transfer in the heat. After winning the B, he charged from 19th to second in 25 laps. Massive recovery drive from him. Cole Macedo went eighth to third to lock into his first Nationals main event. The Outlaws posted a video clip of Macedo afterwards saying quote "I don't even know where the F that bottom is, f that bottom." And Daryn Pittman came out on top of a wild battle the last few laps for that final spot, with Ashton Torgerson and Donny Schatz in the mix. These guys really were brought back into the mix by the late heartbreak for Kerry Madsen. On the initial white flag lap, he pulled up lame while running in a locked in spot, after leading the first 12 laps from the second starting spot. He later told FloRacing's Kyle McFadden that the throttle pedal actually broke, and he was trying anything he could to get the 55 to the finish. He nearly crashed though with Torgerson, and ended up 19th, and well down the order. That paved the way for Pittman. Donny Schatz the first guy out last night, and he'll start 11th in the B tonight with some work to do to try and lock into his 27th straight Nationals feature. I'll have more on him shortly. The other big names with work to do include Brent Marks, James McFadden, Anthony Macri, all those guys in the B. And Justin Sanders not making the feature last night, he'll start tonight midpack in the C. We did have another ugly crash last night with Justin Whittall needing time and help to get out of a destroyed 67 machine. He was alert and talking to safety officials, but was transported to the hospital for checks. We don't know anything more than that as I write this.
Looking ahead to today, weather a concern around Knoxville, with storms in the forecast. The track is looking to get things completed in between morning and nighttime storms that are expected, so things could move quickly today. Hot laps have already been moved to 5:30PM local time, and more schedule changes could come. The one thing to watch for here with the weather is what it means for Kyle Larson. He's in New York today to practice and qualify the Cup car at Watkins Glen. That should end by 2PM eastern, and then he'll be on his way to Knoxville. If things get delayed tonight though, he could miss the Nationals finale, as he'd need to head back to New York for Sunday's Cup race. It's certainly a possible underlying story to watch today.
Going through the feature lineup, I think this thing is going to be a dog fight tonight. We know Timms is fast, but can he hold off some of these guys behind? It's a big question. Carson Macedo to his outside, Logan Schuchart and Brad Sweet behind. Sheldon Haudenschild, Corey Day on row three. Rico Abreu from row four. Larson on row five. And can Gravel pick his way forward. I think this thing is as wide open a Knoxville feature as we've had in some time. I don't even know where you begin to handicap this thing. Drop me a comment and let me know who you are picking tonight. I worry about Timms' lack of experience here, even though I think he has the speed. I think Schuchart is fast, I think Macedo is motivated. I'm not sure on Sweet. I feel like it's been a while since we saw him really good at Knoxville. Day will be good, so will Rico. and Larson will be charging. It's going to come down to who can make the right calls at the fuel stop. Should be one for the ages I think.
Back to Donny Schatz. He's obviously not had the speed all week, but did look pretty good by the end of last night's feature. 15th to fifth was a big charge, and he nearly had his 27th straight start. He'll need more of that tonight if he's going to march from 11th in the B to a top four transfer spot. I do think it's doable, and if anyone can make it happen, it's Schatz at Knoxville. Mid-program last night, I did get some interesting messages about who was hanging around and maybe helping the 15 squad out. Ex-Schatz crew chief Ricky Warner was off last night, as his driver Rico Abreu had already locked in. But that didn't stop him from being in the Knoxville infield. Warner was spotted keeping an eye on Schatz's car during his heat race, and he was hanging around the 15 pit talking to Schatz and the TSR crew guys. And this doesn't sound like it was Warner hanging around old buddies drinking adult beverages and telling stories. I'm told that Schatz was talking Warner through what he was feeling in the car, and I've also been told that Schatz's current crew chief Todd Devnich and Warner do stay in touch. I'll leave it up to you to decide how important this was or wasn't, but I do find it curious that Schatz hadn't been able to pass any cars on his prelim night and missed the feature by a wide margin, and then suddenly is able to charge through a feature field and nearly grab a lock in on the same night that Ricky Warner is spotted hanging around the 15 pit. There are some silly season rumblings about Schatz and TSR again, and I think this space is one to watch as 2025 continues. This has been Schatz's worse Outlaw season in many years, and I can't imagine either side is very happy about it. Making tonight's A though would be a boost to this team I think headed into the latter part of the Outlaw season. Stay tuned.
At Florence last night, Bobby Pierce and Devin Moran picked up the final two North South 100 prelim wins. Pierce outdueled Jonathan Davenport, and Moran capitalized when early leader Mike Marlar tangled with a lap car and pulled off with damage. Moran ended up high point man, with Pierce, Garrett Alberson, Brandon Overton, and Hudson O'Neal the rest of the top five. These points set tonight's heat race lineups, and it looks like a top four invert, with the high point guys outside row two. The top three in each will transfer, and Josh Rice, Nick Hoffman, Chris Ferguson, Donald McIntosh, Michael Chilton, and Mike Marlar are the pole sitters. Bobby Pierce is trying to win his third straight North South 100, and after what we saw last night, he's likely the favorite tonight. I do think that Moran looks good, Jonathan Davenport is fast, and Brandon Overton has been up front. I feel like Overton could use a good night, as he's been pretty quiet this season in the Longhorn Factory Team car with Riggs Motorsports. Just the one Lucas win and pretty far down the order in the championship standings. He did win this event back in 2021, topping Tim McCreadie and Davenport. Tonight's 100 lap, $75,000 to win show will be live on FloRacing if you want to tune in. If you need a Flo subscription, head over to dirtrackr.com/floracing and sign up. Let me know who you are picking for this one.
Other Friday winners included Jason Feger with MARS at Sycamore, Rusty Schlenk was an Iron-Man winner at Millstream, and Ashton Winger topped Tyler Erb and Jake O'Neil on the opening night of the Clash at the Mag with the Comp Cams series. That one is $12,000 to win tonight. There is also MARS at Macon and lots of other regional action.
Friday open wheel winners included Gavin Miller with the Xtreme Outlaw midgets at Path Valley. Ryan Newton won at Lernerville, Briggs Danner was a USAC east coast winner at Big Diamond, Matt Farnham and Ricky Peterson split Tri City wins, and Kyle Cummins was an MSTC winner at Circle City.
Alright, that's it for this week. An important show note coming up. Barring something crazy happening, there won't be much in the way of Daily shows this next week. I do hope to have a really cool dirt late model interview for you, which would likely come mid week. And I could pop in and do something if there is crazy news. But other than that, things will be much quieter than normal. I know it might seem like a weird time to take a week off of shows, but I have come to the end of grad school, and my final graduation requirements aligned perfectly with the week of the Knoxville Nationals, and right after. I'm wrapping up some final project stuff and have some commitments that will take me away from the show. So, barring some crazy news, my next planned regular Daily show will be Sunday, August 17th. And if all goes well, I'll have that interview for you hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday. But don't worry, the show isn't going away, nothing bad is happening, I just need to make sure we get finished up with this school stuff.
So, with that said, enjoy today's racing, and we'll see you guys back here in a few days.